Feather/speak
Overgrown. Walk past the stump of the lilac and out to that green bin for pizza boxes, yard scraps. And the blue one where I close my eyes, praying I dried the berry lids and checked those numbers as faint as a god in that ridged geometry. A hail storm interrupting, no … it’s the neighbor again tossing seed to greet the crows that “follow her on her walks,” that “wait outside her door,” that “respond to name and caw.” Feather/speak. The wind rising. Upon designing power lines who considered the birds? How it’d fit their talons like a glove or a home, let them organize in public — how alive.
This poem is a taking out the trash poem. I’m not sure that’s a genre… but it’s a wild world out there if you notice! This one is the mash-up of the headline of a Seattle Times article sticking out of the recycling bin and a quick conversation with a neighbor who chooses her crow friends wisely.
I recently watched The Wind Rises by Hayao Miyazaki, a beautiful film about a young Japanese man who wants to build a beautiful plane but it happens to coincide with Japan entering a world war. That darkness is lightly woven throughout an otherwise beautiful story of love, design and dedication.
A brief aside: The act of poetry is, to me, largely a posture of attending to, giving voice to, and radically including all parts of the world. In the spirit of that posture, I wanted to make you aware of something this week! Over the last 6 months, I’ve been participating in a Giving Project - a group of people that starts a community fund and then learns (by doing) about grantmaking, collective decision making and fundraising. Essentially, a group of 12 strangers (now friends) and I are fundraising money to redistribute six $50,000 two-year grants to small organizations in the Northwest that are committed to Environmental Justice. This means we are trying to raise $300,000 between the 12 of us and we’re over ⅔ of the way there!
These groups are amazing and it has been a great opportunity to learn about organizations that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to meet or know about. We are still narrowing the number of grant applicants to the final six but we’ve seen applications from folks who are: housing unhoused youth, running landback initiatives for Indigenous groups, building education programs on sustainable urban farming, supporting migrant farmers in rural communities and so much more.
If any part of that is something you want to participate in you can contribute here (or learn more here.) Thanks so much for considering and for continuing to spend these moments of attention with me on “most” Thursdays.
With gratitude,